The present invention relates to an in-space viewpoint control device in use of displaying information by a computer while applying a virtual space, in an application of an electronic virtual museum, for example.
As it has been noted typical in the field of information visualizing systems, such as the electronic virtual museum system using a computer, the art of embedding certain kinds of contents as objects to be visualized at predetermined positions in the virtual space (three-dimensional (3D) space) created by the computer has been widely adapted such that the contents can be viewed, and certain information services are made possible. The status-quo in the field has been reported in a Technical Report of IEICE (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) OFS96-34, IE96-55 (1996-09), a Report of the Institute of Information Processing Research Group 96-IM-28-7, etc.
According to such information visualizing system applying the above-described technique, the user has to conduct certain operations to adjust a position, direction and so forth of a virtual viewpoint in the 3D space, for displaying the objects on a screen in due order, and for selecting information embedded therein for viewing.
As to a system for controlling changes in position, direction etc. of the viewpoint (to be referred to as viewing pass information), for example, there are two types of systems. The first type of system would be a system in which the position, direction etc. of the viewpoint are calculated in response to a content of the user""s operation, while moves of a mouse interlock with changes in a viewpoint position. The second type of system would be a system in which more than a single piece of viewing pass information are calculated according to the contents"" positions and shapes of space so as to be recorded. Therefore, in this second type of system, the user can selectively use the recorded viewing pass information so as to view the contents.
In the meantime, many kinds of systems have been developed, which provide the user with information related to the contents (objects). For instance, when the object is a real life object, the relevant information would be bibliographical information etc. of the object. According to such a system, it is most common that one of the objects within a screen is selected by a direct pointing operation, or by selecting an icon or a menu presented on the screen, in order to additionally display the relevant information of the selected object.
With respect to each content to be visualized in a virtual space, there is a particular visualizing method reflecting intentions of a content designer, and it is considered as important that the designer""s intentions are reflected upon the actual information visualization. In this respect, however, the conventional types of systems have the following shortcomings.
(1) Because the viewing pass information is calculated on the basis of the user""s operation information, a shape of space, and information regarding the contents dispositions, it is noted as a problem that each display of content (object) does not reflect the original intentions of the content designer with respect to visualization.
(2) It is regarded that conditions of visualizing the focus content vary depending on the intentions of the content designer, and the user""s operation. However, in respect with a prior art relevant information visualization control for providing the user with relevant information of the content for viewing, visualization conditions of the relevant information, i.e. a display position, size of the relevant information, etc. are automatically determined to fall in a certain arrangement which is being previously decided on the basis of screen coordinates. Therefore, the display of the relevant information would often interfere with the display of the object. Consequently, the user has to go through some trouble adjusting the position of the object or the relevant information manually, in order to view the object and the relevant information together on the same screen. This is also against the content designer""s intentions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an in-space viewpoint control device for displaying an object and relevant information thereof while reflecting intentions of the content designer.
In order to resolve the above objective, the present invention provides an in-space viewpoint control device applied in an information visualization system for providing the user with visualized information by embedding various contents as object images in desired places in a space image arranged in a virtual space so as to display the object images in turns along with the space image, comprising: a recommend vector setting means for setting recommend vector information which designates a recommended viewpoint of the object image; and a viewpoint information determination means for determining viewpoint information, which is used for displaying the object image, on the basis of the recommend vector information, thus displaying the object image in a way reflecting the intentions of a person who is responsible for setting the recommend vector information.
It is preferred that the above structure of the in-space viewpoint control device further comprises: a viewing point order determination means responsive when a plurality of recommend vectors are set with respect to the object image, as it assigns a rotation order to each viewing point of the object image which is determined by each vector; and a viewing point shifting means for shifting the viewing point of the object image in accordance with the rotation order.
It is also preferred that the in-space viewpoint control device further comprises a relevant information visualization control means responsive when the user selects to have relevant information of the object displayed together with the object image on the same screen, as it adjusts display status of the object and the relevant information so that they do not interfere with each other on the screen.
It is preferred that the viewpoint information determination means determines at least either one between a viewing point position and the viewing direction as viewpoint information in viewing the image of the object. It is also preferred that the viewing point shifting means determines a course of shifting for the viewing point of the object image on the basis of the rotation order, so as to shift the viewing point along the course of shifting.
The present invention also provides an in-space viewpoint control device applied in an information visualization system for providing the user with visualized information by embedding various contents as object images in desired places in a space image arranged in a virtual space so as to display the object images in turns along with the space image, comprising a relevant information visualization control means responsive when the user selects to have relevant information of the object displayed together with the object image on the same screen, as it adjusts display status of the object and the relevant information so that they do not interfere with each other on the screen.